Parody pokes fun at App.net's $50 fee

Social networks provide a valuable procrastinatory service that you can’t find anywhere else on the net. But would you pay $50 to join one that doesn’t even exist yet?

IHave50Dollars is hoping you will. Touted as “a real-time social feed for people who have $50,” the site is a parody of Silicon Valley celeb Dalton Caldwell’s App.net, a Twitter-like site that with a sizeable entry fee.

The concept behind App.net is that charging users $50 up front will keep out spammers and detractors who might not be fully dedicated to the community. But Max Spiker, the prankster behind IHave50Dollars, thinks that’s a bit steep.

“After I stepped back from the herd mentality that was making app.net so popular I found it kind of absurd,” he told Betabeat. “I thought I’d have some fun and put a mirror up to it.”

If you attempt to register a username for the joke site, you’re instead directed to a TED talk about ending modern slavery.

“If you can spare $50 for a social network I'm guessing you can spare $50 to help put an end to slavery,” Spiker wrote. “Yeah, it's 2012 and it's still a pretty big problem.”

“I thought I’d use the opportunity to point attention to something that I wish got more attention, resources, and brainpower than it currently does—from people who obviously have an extra $50 lying around,” he told Betabeat.

Is spending $50 on an upscale Twitter account a showy waste of money? Or is the pay model the next step in online socializing? In any case, Spiker’s parody represents the first of the resistance to come.